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U.S. DoD Geospatial Market

Geospatial Spending in the U.S. DoD Market to Increase from $582.4 Million in 2010 to $604.1 Million in 2016

The Market to Obtain $4,587.5 Million between 2009 and 2016 at a CAGR of a 5.7 Percent, Outstripping both the General C4ISR and Overall Defense Markets

The U.S. DoD geospatial data, software, and services spending will continue to benefit from stable growth in command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) and the Government’s focus on counter-insurgency/terror operations, especially for special operations. There is high demand for increased tactical geospatial reporting and term analysis, as motion video exploitation (MVE) analysis and dissemination capability has not kept pace with platform, sensor, and data growth. While the DoD’s first priority is to acquire analysis software, they also desire automated feature extraction, pattern recognition, materials identification, change detection, tracking moving objects, and training. As a third of requests for support are not being met currently, tables of organization/equipment (TO/TE) are expanding to address mission requirements. “Current deployments and future counter-terror operations will continue for many years, ensuring a steady inflow of revenues to the market,” says the analyst of this research. “Geospatial data, software tools, and services are now inherent in patrolling and close air support tactics, techniques, and procedures.”

Meanwhile, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) has commissioned the Multi-national Geospatial Co-Production (MGCP) program, which will eventually result in a shift from proprietary to open standards-based interoperable geospatial systems. Consequently, there will be a whittling down of the variety of imagery collection platforms. Future purchase patterns will indicate a shift away from high-end platforms toward proven and reliable designs that offer maximum flexibility. These products should also have the ability to be quickly upgraded and integrated, as commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based geospatial technology matures. In this scenario, cloud computing architectures for geospatial data and services are expected to become popular. The Transformative Apps program that utilizes mature COTS-based devices such as smart phones and apps that respond quickly to rapidly evolving tactical user needs could gradually phase out traditional Programs of Record.

Device manufacturers will continue to emphasize the dissemination of geospatial information to the ‘edge’ users with limited communications architectures and small form factors. Web services, wherein end users utilize only required products, are expected to lower the prices of software licenses, and make data increasingly commoditized. “However, as collaboration through social media has become widespread in the operational and intelligence communities, there is bound to be continued investment in network infrastructure as well as software analysis and dissemination tools,” notes the analyst.

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled U.S. DoD Geospatial Market provides end-user overviews, industry challenges, and types of services required by the Department of Defense (DoD) geospatial market. It also offers an analysis of the geospatial contract spending, end-user programs, and a competitive overview of major market participants. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts thoroughly examine the following markets: data (aerial photography, photogrammetry, maps, charts, geodetic products, and cartography), software (analysis toolkits, database management, search and storage tools, processing, exploitation, and dissemination, data fusion, as well as modeling and simulation), and services (digitizing, operations/analysis, program administration, engineering/integration, training/maintenance, network architectures, and archiving).